Free Republic

Fellow Citizens of Freedom, America’s Founding Fathers imbued the nation with a deep seated understanding of and passion for Liberty that is an inspiration to the world. As an Australian active in 1945 commemoration in Indonesia, a nation which won independence in that year, I am a huge admirer of Douglas MacArthur. In an open letter to President Trump, I examine America’s enduring spirit of freedom and linked capacity for self-examination and redirection. I hope you will read my letter at the blog (https://freedom-demokrasi-and-civilised-humanity.com/2018/06/15/open-letter-to-the-leader-of-the-free-world-our-common-heritage-defending-freedom-today/) and discuss it here. Geoff Fox

President Donald Trump said Friday he won’t sign an immigration bill that doesn’t fund a border wall, as he told journalists a Justice Department report showed “total bias” against him and announced tariffs on China. NO BILL WITHOUT WALL In an interview on Fox News, Trump said he wouldn’t sign an immigration bill that doesn’t fund his proposed border wall. Votes on immigration bills are likely in the House next week, but it’s unclear whether a bill backed by GOP leaders has enough votes to pass. Trump said he wouldn’t sign the “more moderate one” crafted by House Speaker Paul...

Most American adults say that the meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un was a good idea, according to a Monmouth poll released Thursday. The seven-in-10 who say it's a good idea is up from 63% in late April, including 93% of Republicans, 74% of independents, and 49% of Democrats. Only 20% say it was a bad idea. The recent poll also shows 46% disapprove of the job Trump is doing as President, perhaps a side effect of the good feelings people have about his efforts on North Korea. The last time Trump's number for...

Sen. John McCain implicitly criticized President Donald Trump on Thursday for "parroting" North Korean and Chinese rhetoric about US-South Korean joint military exercises following the summit between Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un earlier this week. "Parroting Chinese and North Korean propaganda by saying joint exercises are 'provocative' undermines our security and alliances," the Arizona Republican said in a statement. McCain's statement did not specifically mention Trump in relation to the word "provocative," but Trump had used the words "provocative" and "war games" to describe the joint military exercises at a press conference in Singapore....

Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said Sunday that President Trump “beclowned himself” and disgraced the United States at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit. “From his slovenly appearance to his unpreparedness, ignorance and arrogance, he beclowned himself,” tweeted Schmidt, one of the loudest GOP critics of Trump. “The Republican majority is filled with cowards who are servile supplicants to the most unfit POTUS ever.”(continued)

Link only due to copyright issues. https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2018/06/08/trump-jack-johnson-black-voters/684898002/

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he is "very, very concerned" about the upcoming meeting with North Korea, and hopes negotiations and any possible future agreement aren't just a "PR show." The Republican made the comments on CBS News' "Face the Nation," after President Trump announced he is reinstating the June 12th meeting with North Korea in Singapore, days after canceling it. Mr. Trump declared the summit a go after meeting with top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol at the White House, before he had even read a letter delivered from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Kasich emphasized that...

Bill Clinton did not hold back when he was asked about President Trump on "CBS Sunday Morning" this weekend. "I don't like all this," the former president said in response to a comment about Trump's Twitter activity. "I couldn't be elected anything now 'cause I just don't like embarrassing people. My mother would have whipped me for five days in a row when I was a little boy if I spent all my time badmouthing people like this." Clinton was speaking to Mo Rocca alongside his "The President Is Missing" co-author, James Patterson....

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., remained mute about her 2020 ambitions Thursday during a town hall meeting in her home state, but attacked the Trump administration’s immigration policies as “immoral” and said she supports a ban on “weapons of war.” “This administration, as far as I’m concerned, has put a target on California’s back and we’re going to need to fight this,” Harris told a crowd of more than 1,000 people in the San Fernando Valley, many of whom were young students, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. She criticized the administration's zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, which has led...

Hillary Clinton , please keep yourself relevant with your heart-wrenching "I've been wronged" tirades, 16 months after the election. Rep. Nancy Pelosi , with a multi-multimillion dollar net worth, it is time for you to open up your home to the treacherous MS-13 gang members your heart breaks for. Rep. Maxine Waters , it is time for you to sell your multimillion dollar mansion and move into the district you supposedly represent. Sen. Chuck Schumer , keep up your "I'm against anything President Trump supports" mantra. And to the Democratic leaders in general, please keep supporting the illegals on the...

Left-wing activist Tom Steyer is blasting House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and top Democrats for not supporting impeachment, claiming that Democrats are complicit in “normalizing” President Donald Trump. He even compared his impeachment movement to the 1960s civil rights movement. “The Founders gave us impeachment to answer a reckless, lawless, and dangerous president and every day that his behavior is accepted, every day that you don’t oppose it, it becomes enshrined as the way things are done. You have normalized this presidency, you have normalized his behavior,” Steyer said in a Tuesday Politico interview. “And then at the end...

The campaign manager for Bernie Sanders in his 2016 presidential run hinted that the Independent senator from Vermont may run for the White House again in 2020. Sanders is “considering another run for the presidency,” but for now is completely focused on his congressional re-election campaign in November, Jeff Weavers said in an interview with C-Span host John McArdle on Monday. Sanders made waves as the progressive who consistently challenged former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in his 2016 primary bid. His platform largely focused on issues like universal healthcare and income equality. When Sanders announced his candidacy for president...

Melania Trump, the First Lady of the United States, revealed her official platform this month. Melania’s platform for children, dubbed “Be Best,” is, according to CNN, a comprehensive program meant to focus on fighting opioid abuse, positivity on social media, and well-being. Separating children from their parents, however, is most definitely not a “Be Best” policy, according to Ted Lieu, a Democrat currently serving as the U.S. Representative for California’s 33rd congressional district. Mr. Lieu took to Twitter to launch an attack on the first lady, criticizing her and her husband’s administration’s immigration policies in one fell swoop....

Donald Trump's strategy for keeping power is to build up his coalition of America's white working class and the nation's ownership class. It's a curious coalition, to say the least. But if Democrats don't respond to it, it could protect Mr. Trump from impeachment and even re-elect him. It just might create a permanent Republican majority around an axis of white resentment and great wealth. Two decades ago, Democrats and Republicans competed over the middle class. They battled over soccer moms and suburban "swing" voters. Since then the middle class has shrunk while the working class has grown, and vast...

The leader of the New York arm of the Black Lives Matter movement is calling out New York gubernatorial candidate and actress/activist Cynthia Nixon for her comments on legalizing marijuana over the weekend, in which she said that the industry could provide a form of “reparations” for communities of color. While he supports cannabis legalization, Black Lives Matter of Greater New York president Hawk Newsome told the Times Union on Monday that candidates for office should not use words like “reparations” lightly, a topic on which there is a growing body of serious scholarship. “Cynthia Nixon’s comments that the legalization...

Revelations that an FBI informant was in contact with members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election have opened the door to a cascade of new details about those communications, emboldening Republican demands for a full accounting of how the Russia investigation began. “If they had spies in my campaign ... for political purposes, that would be unprecedented,” President Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Tuesday, calling it a “disgrace.” “I hope there weren’t,” Trump added. “[If there were], it would make every political event ever before look like small potatoes.”...

John McCain wanted to give this speech about Senate dysfunction before his brain cancer diagnosis last summer. Then, his longtime aide, speechwriter and friend Mark Salter got a call from McCain with a sudden urgency "’You coming out here? What's the story,’” Salter recalled of his conversation with McCain. “And I said, ‘Yeah, here's what I want to say in the speech.’ And I said, ‘have you gotten the results back.’ You know, he goes, ‘it's not good.’" Salter rushed to Arizona. They finished the speech on the plane back to D.C. "They all stayed in their chairs for his...

Democrats face a political minefield ahead of President Donald Trump’s historic North Korea meeting: how to root for success for a president they usually want to see flounder. Trump is reportedly reevaluating the prospects for a significant denuclearization commitment from Kim Jong Un, but if he manages to land a foreign policy coup that has eluded past presidents, it couldn’t come at a worse time for Democrats. The party is planning to center its midterm campaign message around the numerous scandals engulfing the administration. A successful meeting with Kim, however, would give Trump and the GOP — already encouraged by...

California State Senator Kevin de Leon introduced himself to the DASB Senate on Wednesday, April 18. He formerly served as President pro tempore of the California State Senate, and is running to unseat incumbent U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein in the 2018 election. De Leon expressed his support for protecting undocumented immigrants and making college free. After Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was going to deport 11 million criminal violent felons, de Leon said he decided to author Senate Bill No. 54, also known as the California “Sanctuary State” Bill. He called Sessions’ comment “fake news,” and said Sessions was...

In an interview Thursday afternoon with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Democratic California Rep. Jackie Speier explained the thinking behind an effort from Democrats and a few Republicans in the House to force floor votes on several immigration-related issues, including both DACA and the border wall. "Will you get those five more Republicans and force a vote on this sensitive issue?" CNN's Blitzer asked. "I think it really depends on the polling that they're seeing in their districts," Speier said about her Republican colleagues. "I really do think it's self-preservation at this point from any of the Republicans, and that's why you...